SBIR/STTR Research Award
Flexible ELO Solar Cells with Ultra-High Specific Power and Areal Power Density
Award amount
$125,000Program and phase
SBIR · Phase IAward year
2015Award details
- Awarding agency
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Branch
- Not reported
- Recipient company
- MICROLINK DEVICES INC
- Proposal award date
- 2015-06-17
- Contract end date
- 2015-12-17
- UEI
- DHJPU2QYVQK7
- Solicitation number
- Not reported
- Topic code
- S3.01
Research abstract
In the proposed effort, MicroLink Devices develop an ultra-lightweight, high-efficiency, GaAs-based, multi-junction solar cell that will be suitable for use in future platforms requiring very high specific power (>2.0 kW/kg) and very high areal power density (>370 W/m2) such as power generation and conversion for robotic science mission applications, and in particular solar electric propulsion (SEP). In addition to drastically reduced mass the highly flexible nature of our ELO solar cells would allow for novel compact lightweight array designs that take full advantage of the unique properties of ELO solar cells. We will achieve this result by reducing the metal content of MicroLink's current inverted metamorphic (IMM), epitaxial lift-off (ELO) solar cell and replacing the metal with robust, low-density, space qualified Kapton® that will retain the flexibility and durability of ELO solar cell at a fraction of its present weight.
Technology keywords
Not reported
Other awards by this recipient
Verified by the same UEI. These are other public SBIR/STTR award pages, not a merged company record.
- Radiation Resistant Solar and Laser Power Converter for Lunar Applications
- Ultra-Thin, Flexible InGaP Solar Arrays Embedded In Solar Sails for Power Generation
- Laser Power Beaming to Sustain Small UAVs using ~1070 nm Source and Receiver
- High Efficiency GaN HBT for X-band Satellite Radar
- Array for High Efficiency Power Beaming
Awards with the same topic code
Verified by an exact topic code match. This is not a text-similarity match.
- Thermoacoustic Radioisotope Generator (TRG)
- Game-Changing Photovoltaic Flexible Blanket Solar Array Technology with Spectrolab Flexsheets
- 3D Nano-Epitaxial Lateral Overgrowth (nano-ELOG) of Large Area, Highly Efficient, and Flexible Multijunction Solar Cells for Space Applications
- A Ferroelectric Semiconductor Absorber for Surpassing the Shockley-Queisser Limit
- Meso-Scale Ericsson Power Generation System
Research funding history
99 SBIR/STTR records share this UEI (2001–2025). Reported award amounts total $39,253,763. Reported amounts are not federal obligations.
Phases: Phase I, Phase II, Phase II – Direct to Phase II
Agencies: Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Energy, National Science Foundation